Testing a New Drum captures the moment when a village artisan, after months spent hewing and shaping a drum with stone tools, at last caps his masterpiece with a lizard-skin drumhead and lets its thunder rumble. Such an accomplishment warrants celebration! Admirers gather from smoke-venting, loaf-shaped houses which—aeried at treetop level—providing safety of women and children should enemies attack. Hornbills soar raucously overhead. Egrets survey the scene from water’s edge.